Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, Downton Abbey, Netflix Clean Up With Emmy Nominations

The nominations for the 2013 Emmys, taking place September 22nd, were announced this morning, and boy-oh-boy, is Netflix feeling really good about itself right now.

Check out our assessment of the nominations after the jump, plus a handy-dandy list of the nominees in categories Relevant to Our Interests (Dramas, Comedies, and Miniseries for the heck of it. No reality shows. You know what we’re about.) after the jump.

We all know big awards shows don’t tend to have heavy genre representation, so I was very pleased to see that American Horror Story: Asylum and Game of Thrones got the most noms, 17 and 16 respectively. For Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage picked up a nomination (predictably so—blood would be shed if it were otherwise!), as did Emilia Clarke and Diana Rigg (yes); the show also got nods for Best Drama Series and Best Writing and Directing, both for “The Rains of Castamere.” Personally, I’d have liked to see Lena Headey get recognized for her amazing work as Cersei this season, but you can’t have everything.

Elsewhere in geek interest, Downton Abbey picked up 12 nominations, including those for Dame Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, and Best Drama. Bandersnatch CummerbundBenedict Cumberbatch picked up a nod for the miniseries Parade’s End and Sigourney Weaver (heck yeah Sigourney Weaver) did a well for the now-cancelled Political Animals.

The big story of the day belongs to Netflix, though, which picked up 14 Emmy nominations total for House of Cards (nine noms, including Best Drama Series, Best Lead Actor, and Best Lead Actress), Arrested Development (three, including Best Comedy Series and Best Lead Actor), and werewolf drama Hemlock Grove, which scored two noms. It’s the first time Netflix’s gotten Emmy nominations for the pure and simple reason that House of Cards was its first show. The Emmys have been skewing away from network cable for years, to the point that at last year’s Emmys there was only one non-cable program nominated for Best Show in either drama or comedy. (That was Modern Family, and it’s cleaned up again this year, getting approximately ten billion acting nominations. I don’t care, I’m still not watching.)

Netflix, network TV, basic cable, premium cable… in the end it doesn’t really matter when it comes to Emmy noms, as the best shows should be nominated regardless of network. Should. Which brings us to the obligatory portion of any awards show nomination article where we talk about snubs.

Where is Hannibal? I wasn’t honestly expecting it to get any nominations, but it sure as heck deserves them. Its ratings may not be great, but the acting—Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Caroline Dhavernas, pretty much everyone—is stellar. At least give Eddie Izzard a guest actor nod, c’mon. And no list of snubs would be complete without a mention of Tatiana Maslany, who plays seven roles on Orphan Black. I haven’t gotten around to watching the show yet, but Jill and Izzy tell me her not getting the nom is a travesty of the highest order, and I trust their taste.

And, not to get too negative, but… I’m kind of confused by all the Downton nominations, to be honest. Don’t get me wrong, I like the show. But it’s more soap opera than Emmy fodder. It’s like Emmy voters heard the British accents and something switched on in their brains. (In that case, again, y u no recognize Tatiana Maslany?)

On to the list. Head over yonder for a PDF of the whole thing. All 43 pages of it.

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series
Adam Driver, Girls
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family
Ed O’Neill, Modern Family
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live
Tony Hale, Veep

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie
James Cromwell, American Horror Story: Asylum
Zachary Quinto, American Horror Story: Asylum
Scott Bakula, Behind the Candelabra
John Benjamin Hickey, The Big C: Hereafter
Peter Mullan, Top Of The Lake